Independent needle for knitting machines



Feb. 27, 1940. A. E. PAGE I 2,192,098

INDEPENDENT NEEDLE FOR KNITTING MACHINES Original Filed Oct. 12, 1937 l-i j Q 24 2a 36 3.6" v 22 64;

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INVENTOR ALBERT E. PAGE 'BY HIS ATTORNEYS I Patented Feb. 27, 1940 UNITED, STATES PATENT OFFICE Albert E. Page, Brooklyn, N.-Y., assignor to Scott & Williams, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Massachusetts Original application October 12,1937, Serial No. 168,645. Divided and this application April 16, 1938, Serial No. 202,559

Claims.

This invention relates to independent needles for knittingmachines and more specifically to a needle adapted to make patterned fabric by stitch variation. One of the objects of the invention is to produce a simplified means for knitting patterned fabric such as underwear or outerwear. It is characteristic of the invention that the needles have sliding butts which are used to give selectivity.

While the needle will be shown and described embodied in a multi-feed independent latch needle circular rib knitting machine, it should be understood that the needle can be used as a rib needle or a plain needle in a circular or straight machine provided only that it is an independent one and has a hook.

This application is a division of my Patent 2,129,148, dated September 6, 1938, resulting from application filed October 12, 1937, Serial No. 168,645, entitled Knitting machine. present application the needle alone is claimed, while in Patent 2,129,148 the needle is claimed in combination with certain other features of the machine shown and described in the two applications. The specification of the present application describes both the machine and the needle.

In the drawing,

. Fig. l is a perspective ing butt needle;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view on an enlarged scale of part of the needle, showing the manner in which the sliding butt is mounted in the shank;

Figs. 3 to '7 are views in vertical section through the outer edge of the dial; Fig. 3 showingthe dial needle in selecting position just after the sliding butt has been pushed down by the selecting hammer; Fig. 4 showing a selected needle projected to tuck position to take yarn, the dotted position of the sliding butt illustrating its position when not selected; Fig. 5 showing how the needles whose sliding butts have not been pushed down are pulled radially inward to miss the yarn after all the dial needles held the fabric down as the cylinder needles rose; Fig. 6 showing the selected needles at the knocking-over point; and Fig. 7 showing a selected needle pushed out to its clearing position with its sliding butt cammed upwardly by the edge of the groove in the dial.

One of the problems in the modern knitting machine, and particularly the multi-feed circular knitting machin'e, is to find room for all view of the novel slid- I the patterning mechanism which is necessary to In the produce the desired fabric. One general type of mechanism for accomplishing thisend is the so-called memory device, in which selecting means, are not required at a following feed in order to change the stitch there. The present invention is shown embodied in a knitting machine containing a memory device, but it should be understood that the novel needle can also be used in machines which do not contain memory devices. The present invention has the great advantage of simplicity in that the selecting means are enabled to act directly on the needle without the intervention of jacks or other elements. In the drawing the invention is shown embodied in the dial and dial needles of a revolving needle cylinder, multi-feed underwear machine. The machine is a rib machine with the variations in the rib stitches at the first, second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh feeds.

Referring now to the drawing, the needle l9 which is shown in Fig. 1 has the usual hook 20 with a pivoted latch 2i and a shank 22. Intermediate th length of the shank is a low operat-' ing butt 23 projecting laterally from the shank in the plane of the hook. As the needle lies in the dial with its hook turned upwardly, the fixed butt also lies on the upper side. This butt is of considerable width in order that the novel butt to be described may project through it. The dial 24 has slots to receive the needles. The low fixed butts 23 project above the slots of the dial. In the embodiment shown in the drawing this fixed or low butt on the needle is so associated with operating cam paths as to manipulate the needle for the making of plain stitches. It can, of course, be located at any desired point along the length of, the shank.

The novel needle has a vertically movable high butt 26 adapted to slide vertically in a slot 21 cut in one'side. of the shank of the needle. Preferably this slot is cut in the low butt 23 because of the simplification of the operating cam paths which is obtained. The slot is equal in thickness to only half the thickness of the shank, as can be seen in Figs. 1 and 2. The sliding butt 26 canbe mounted in the shank in africtioned manner. In the drawing the frictioning means shown comprise a small spring finger 28 riveted to one side of the low butt 23, overlying the slot and pressing against the sliding butt, as shown for instancein Figs. 1 and 2. The two corners of the upper end of the sliding butt 26 may be cut square, but the lower end is preferably rounded. The length of the butt is such that it may project below the shank of the needle or above V assumes the position shown in Fig. 4. In Fig. 1

the low butt of the needle. When it is projected above the low butt, it is adapted, in cooperation with certain cams to be described, to cause special manipulation of the needle.

It has been found possible to cause all the necessary movements of the sliding butt without rocking the needle or otherwise disturbing its longitudinalor knitting operation. While the sliding butt is moved downwardly by the selecting means; it is moved upwardly automatically by the particular shape and form of the dial taken in connection with the longitudinal movement of the needle. To achieve this, a groove or depression 29 is cut in the dial 24, asshown for instance in Figs. 3 to '7, this depression or groove 29 being adapted to underlie the butts 26 except when the needle is in extreme clearing position. As can be seen in Fig. 6, the inner edge of this groove 29, which extends all the way around the upper face of the dial, is such a distance from the center of the machine that when a needle is completely retracted the depression is still underneath the sliding butt. The depression is of such a depth that when the sliding butt is pushed downwardly till its upper end is flush with the top of the low butt, the lower or rounded end of the sliding butt will not contact with the bottom of the depression (see Fig. 6). As mentioned above, the pushing upwardly of the sliding butt is obtained automatically without reference to the selecting means, by pushing the needle radially outward and causing the sliding butt to ride up the bevelled outer edge 30 of the groove to the position shown in Fig. '7. By the time the sliding butt has climbed out of the groove, as shown in this figure, the needle has been extended to the point where it is clear of the loops which were in the hook. Since the sliding butt is frictioned, it will stay in that uppermost position unless and until it is depressed by some selecting means. at a subsequent feed.

Some cams for manipulating the novel needle are shown in Figs. 3 to 7. In Fig. 3 a push out cam 33 is shown operating on the fixed butt 23 to bring the needle out to the sel;cting point shown in this figure. At this 'point the sliding butt 26 passes under a selecting'member or hammer 34 which will depress the sliding butts of selected needles in accordance with the pattern requirements. If the sliding butt is depressed it assumes the solid line position shown in Fig. 3; if it is not depressed it remains in the dotted line position in that figure. The push out cam 33 continues to push the needle radially outward by contacting the low butt 23 until the needle 5 is shown a push in cam 35' to cause differentiated needle movement. This cam has a point areabee adapted to push against raised sliding butts after the needles ride ofi the push out cam 33, the point being undercut at 36 so that only those needles whose sliding butts are up will be pushed in. This differentiation may be used to determine which needles are to take yarn and which are not to take yarn. Fig. 6 shows a needle pushed in to its innermost position by a knitting cam 3!. In Fig. '7 the needle is shown pushed out to clearing position by a cam 44, the slid-- ing butt having been raised by movement to this needle position. It should be understood that difierentiated needle movement can also be given in an outward direction, as shown-for instance in Fig. 14 of my parent Patent 2,129,148.

It will be noted that there is no tipping of the shank of the needles which would affect the stitch-making ability of the elements. The jacks and a shank in combination with a fixed butt and a sliding butt on said shank, the sliding butt being adapted to project through and be- I yond the fixed butt when projected for selects};

ing purposes.

2. A machine knitting needle having a hook and a shank in combination with a fixed butt and a sliding butt on said shank, the sliding butt being longer than the shank iswide, whereby it projects. on either one side or the other of the shank for selecting purposes.

3. A machine knitting needle having a hook and a shank in combination with a fixed butt and a sliding butt on said shank, the sliding butt being longer than the shank is wide, whereby it projects on either one side or the other of the shank in the plane of the hook forselecting purposes.-

4. A machine knitting needle having a hook and a shank in combination with a butt slidably mounted in a 'frictione'd manner in the shank end of such length as to project either above or below the rest of the needle for selecting purposes, the lower end of said butt being rounded to permit raising the butt by means of force ap- -plied at an angle to the length of the needle.

5. A machine knitting needle with a hook and a shank, having a fixed operating butt in combination with a higher butt for selecting purposes adapted to slide in a frictional manner with relation to theshank located between the two operating faces of the fixed butt and above the fixed butt in the plane of the hook.

- ALBERT E. PAGE. 

